


Blooming

by lunnandkoo



Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Abusive Parents, Beverly Marsh & Richie Tozier Are Best Friends, Childhood Friends, Growing Up Gay, Homophobia, Homophobic Language, Internalized Homophobia, M/M, Multi, Other, Self-Discovery, bev moved away, fuck that clown, richie loves the cure, they are 14, they call bev on wednesdays
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-19
Updated: 2019-10-25
Packaged: 2020-12-24 07:13:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21095489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lunnandkoo/pseuds/lunnandkoo
Summary: "You gotta be dumb as fuck if you think that, Eddie, you know she is not my type at all.""Then what's your type Richie, you literally never talk about this with me." Eddie replied with a quizzical look."What? I'm always talking about my type, your mom is my kind of woman.""Shut up dick, you know what I mean."





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, the kids are 14 and this takes place after the Summer of 1988.
> 
> btw: english is not my native language, so if anything comes across weirdly, it's because of that. Polly THE minecrafter is my lovely editor, she has been helping me with the writing and the grammar. 
> 
> this goes to polly, a criminal who stole my heart<3

Richie had to kind of tell Eddie that he had a crush on someone from school after Eddie overheard a conversation that Ben and Richie had in between fourth and fifth period.

"Have you actually tried to confess?" 

"Shh! Lower your voice! Yeah, I think so" 

“You just said you think so? I've never seen you doubt so much about getting a "punchline" right"

"Listen,— and then Richie started doing a British impression— Ladies and gentlemen, the punchline got too old."

"What does that even mean?" Ben said to himself and started laughing.

Eddie had been following them on the halls for a while because he wanted to scare Richie. Richie had scared him in the morning before class and that had made Eddie pee a little in his pants. Richie, after laughing for five minutes straight, felt bad and gave Eddie his gym pants, which fitted baggy and made Eddie's clean cut polo shirt look weird on him and now he wanted revenge, but never thought he would be overhearing... stuff.

Richie just smiled and rolled his eyes at Ben. Eddie distanced himself from them then, not wanting to pry more on whatever Ben and Richie were discussing, before rushing towards them, landing his hands on Richie’s shoulder and screaming “AHH!” 

"WHAT THE FUCK MAN?!” Richie yelped, only to turn and see that it was no one else than Eddie. He straightened his shoulders and gulped nervously as he stared at the boy in front of him. His eyes widened as he came to realize Eddie could have overheard the conversation. 

What if Eddie heard the conversation and knew exactly who were talking about?, Richie thought.

As Ben turned around as well, his eyes widened, before relaxing as he saw it was only Eddie.

Eddie got concerned as he saw Richie's facial expression shifting,

"Did I make you pee too?" 

Richie raised his hand to put his glasses back in place,"What is wrong with you, Edward, what the actual fuck." 

"You played the same prank on me earlier!" 

Ben looked at Richie with a raised brow when Eddie mentioned the prank, before slowly starting to move away from them, "I should get going, see you later guys." Eddie and Richie ignored whatever Ben had said to them.

"It's not the same Eddie, it's not the same. Where you listening?"

"Why are you being so weird about this, Richie, it was just a darn prank" Eddie said this with a quieter tone.

Richie looked around, everyone had already started going into the classrooms, even if the bell hadn't even rang. 

"I asked if you were listening, shit head."

"What if I was?"

"Just fucking answer the fucking question, Eddie."

"Oh, so this is what you are being weird about? Your weird crush?"

Richie sighed and pinches the bridge of his nose.

"Whatever you heard, please don't bring it up ever again and don't ever dare to bring it up with the losers. I don't trust any of you."

"You trust Ben."

"Ben doesn't count." Richie grumbled.

The bell rang.

"I’m sorry, Rich, I didn’t mean to overhear , I was just trying to get you." 

"I know" Richie replied, he knew Eddie wasn't a snitch, he knew that Eds would never do that to him on purpose.

"We should get going to class dumbass, I'm not getting detention again because of you."

"Because of me? I didn't know I was so distracting Eds"

"Shut up already before—” Eddie wanted to say before the ‘Hall Witch,(Mrs. Smith's, the teacher who checked the halls for kids that weren't inside classrooms and gave everyone detentions, co over and gives us time out.’

But it was too late.

"Hello, Tozier, Kapsbrak, what a surprise! you boys are both getting a—" 

"A pass for hell, detention for being on the halls in class time." 

Mrs. Smith looked surprised, she walked towards them and said "If you boys are so smart, I don't get why you where waiting for me. To my office N O W."

Richie rolled his eyes and pulled Eddie's wrist, and so, they started walking towards her office building,

"I will be in there in twenty minutes after my break. You boys better behave." the Hall Witch called. 

He knew the office, he knew all the places where you could get called for trouble. He wasn't a punk or a bad student, he just made his classmates laugh constantly and teachers weren't having it. He would also, if he was caught, get detention for cursing many times during class, or whenever Richie managed to make Eddie crack up with one of his jokes at the wrong time during one of the classes they shared, whether they sat close or together for an assignment. 

Richie would always feel guilty because of this. So he always took part of the responsibility for his misfortunes, "I actually made him laugh, teacher.","It's my fault", and that way, they would get detention together and Richie would get to share quiet moments with his very very best friend Eddie, both of them whispering or writing on Richie's dirty notebook.

"I can't believe you made me get shitty ass detention again this week, My mom is not gonna allow me to sleep at your place today after she gets a call." Eddie groaned.

Richie stopped walking and Eddie bumped right into him. Richie shot him a mischievous smile. Eddie noticed this once he took a glance at his friend's face.

"What are you even thinking? You know I can't lie."

"Let's just tell the Hall Witch that you were helping me because I got fucking broken up or some shit and that my ex girlfriend was Betty Finn from our History class, she will try to connect the dots and have a talk with me. That's it, don't worry Eds, I got it."

"It better work because I bought snacks for tonight with my allowance and I'm not eating those by myself. It's too much sugar."

"Don't worry, Spagheds, I'll make it up to you, sorry I got so weird earlier." Richie’s grip had loosened around Eddie's wrist after Eddie bumped into him, so he started walking on his own, leaving Eddie behind, feeling quite a little embarrassed by the instinctive emotional reaction from earlier.

"Stop calling me that. Also, is Betty Finn your crush?" Eddie giggled as he tried to catch up and keep up with Richie's pace 

"You gotta be dumb as fuck if you think that, Eddie, you know she is not my type at all."

"Then what's your type Richie, you literally never talk about this with me." Eddie replied with a quizzical look.

"What? I'm always talking about my type, your mom is my kind of woman."

"Shut up dick, you know what I meant."

Richie grew quiet after that. They were close to the office. When they finally sat down in silence in front of the office's door, Richie blurted out, "I like freckles."

"What?" Eddie said squinting his eyes, forming wrinkles in his nose.

"You asked about my type, i'm answering your fucking dumb question." Richie reasoned as he gulped, feeling his hands starting to get clammy.

"Oh." Was all Eddie could just say then, he knew that if he said anything else Richie would change the subject of their conversation. 

"It's not like a type, but shorts do it for me. More like legs." Richie continued on, looking away from Eddie, staring at the wall in front of him,.

Eddie just nodded like he had idea about what Richie was talking about. But he didn't. 

"Is that why you stared at Bev when she jumped on the lake?" He asked.

Richie looked at Eddie like he was crazy, "You know I don't like Molly Ringwald."

"It doesn't stop you from getting a boner."

"The only boners I got that day where from your whities." Richie tried to pull off as a joke, he hoped his humongous glasses would help hide away the fact that he was blushing as he said that. Eddie wasn't looking at him either way.

"Ew ew ew. I fucking hate you. At least mine didn't have poopy stains." 

"Dude! I told you already, that was DIRT."

"Whatever, Richie, dirt or shit, those were filthy as fuck."

"Wait– I think Bill's my type."

"Isn't he like everyone's type?"

"That's why I said it. Didn't you have a crush on him when we were little? Before we knew what fag meant."

"I'm not sure that counted, I was 5 and I didn't know what a crush actually meant."

They both grew quiet once again. Richie turned to look at Eddie's wrist watch, then to the clock on the wall, they still had 10 minutes before the Hall Witch would arrive.

"Did you tell the losers about tonight?" Richie asked trying to fill in the silence between. Changing the subject, like you always do, Eddie thought, "Only to Stan. He asked if I wanted to watch movies today, I said I couldn't because I already had plans and he said ‘Ah, Richie's.’ "

"Ok, I can trust Stan. I think. Ben knows too."

"You know they know that we always hang out like this, right?"

"I don't want them to feel left out."

"I don't think they feel that way. Bill and Mike hang out without us and I don't feel left out." 

Eddie looked at the pants and sighed, he pulled them up to see his sneakers. He had rolled the pants up to his ankles so they wouldn’t look that long on him, but even then, they still did and were baggy as well. "By the way, Eds, those look great on you!"

Eddie slapped him in the arm softly.

"You know I look awful with these. Your legs are too long." 

"I hope we don't get detention so we can go home early. We can wash your peed caquis at my house."

"Wait, do you still have my shorts inside your locker?"

Riche had put them on a 7eleven bag and thrown them into his locker before Eddie had gone crazy about having them in his locker. Eddie could handle a little pee in his trousers, but not on his actual pants! If Bowers saw that, he would never stop mocking him about it. 

"I do. By the way, what do you want to do today? I got the new Forever People issues. We can also go out and rent a movie. I got money last week and believe it or not, I saved some." Richie started listing things as he arranged his glasses and looked attentively at Eddie, but what Richie had actually meant to ask Eddie was if he wanted to cuddle today since the whole week had been horrible at home, and today his parents weren't home.

"Can we get Ice cream? and also can we just rent a Star Wars movie? Maybe play some cards." Eddie felt Richie's nervous gaze. Eddie kind of knew what Richie needed today. Richie had been a little moody this week and it's been a long time since Richie had invited Eddie over to his house. His parents had gotten worse the last two months, drinking and fighting. So they would only hang out at the cinema or Richie would go to Eddie's whenever his mom allowed it.

"Dude, let's get the one where Princess Leia wears a tiny ass bikini." 

"I don't want you getting wet anywhere near me. Or any body fluids in between, it's unsanitary."

"You know what was unsanitary? Your mom and I—"


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Richie sprains his ankle and dances to the cure.

Eventually, they convinced the Hall Witch with the Betty Finn story, Richie even had to fake a little crying.  
They leave early on Fridays, so they went straight to ice cream parlor right after school was over.  
Richie ordered a banana split and Eddie ordered one spoon of pistachio, he knew he would have to help Richie finish his banana split.  
"Is the girl from the counter your crush?" Eddie asked.  
"She is not from our school."  
"She is, she sits with me in arts."  
"I have never ever seen her."  
"So your crush goes to our school."  
"I guess." And with that, Richie put a spoonful of ice cream into his mouth to avoid the conversation. He winced as he got freeze brain.  
"You are literally so dumb Richie, here, give me your hand."  
Eddie extended his hand to grab a hold of Richie’s a baby wipe.  
Eddie then proceeded to clean his sticky clammy and sugary hands before moving to pinch between his thumb and index finger, "My mom made me learn this. It’s supposed to help. She said I could get brain damage from brain freeze."  
It helped Richie quite alright, but it did not soothe his mind from racing and his stomach from feeling butterflies. He thought he could stay like this forever, with Eddie holding him.  
"Hey, shit tard, it’s done." Eddie said in hopes of making Richie snap out of whatever trance he was in so he would stop clinging to his hand.  
"Oh shit sorry, I think your mom was right."  
"About the brain damage?"  
"About the way I made her brains out last nite." Richie stopped touching Eddie, and it left a warm and fuzzy feeling in his hand.  
"Ugh, you are so fucking disrespectful, stop talking about my mom and let's go or we are never gonna finish this, you always bitch and complain about how much ice cream you get."  
Eddie started to get up from the booth they were sitting.  
"Come on Eduardo, ¡Estoy bromeando, amigo!" Richie said in his Pancho Vanilla voice.  
He then proceeded to stand up and follow Eddie through the ice cream shop before he got to the door.

☁︎

Eddie had wanted to go back to his house for a change of clothes, but he was sure that if his mom saw him, she would revoke his permission to stay at the Tozier's.  
So Richie had to sneak into Eddie's room to get him clean undies, a pair of pants and the snacks he had bought.  
Richie was a master on this. He loved breaking into the house without making noise or climbing to Eddie's window (which wasn't really that high, but high enough for him to have to climb) and scaring the shit out of him. Sometimes Eddie would throw pillows or stuff at Richie, which would result in him falling off and Eddie feeling quite guilty and tending to him,cleaning and disinfecting any scratches, wounds or bruises he might’ve gotten.

Richie entered the Kaspbrak house without complication and he followed Eddie's instructions.

"There's a blue bag on my coat rack, get that one, the snacks are inside of it.Besides the coat rack, is my drawer chest. The second drawer to your left is where my underwear is,, the fourth drawer is my pants drawer, get me the yellow or blue ones. But do not, I repeat, do not get me the fucking red shorts, or I might die of cold."

And as tempted Richie was, he didn't get him the red shorts that made Eddie look so cute. Even if it was still the warm fall, Richie's house had AC and Eddie wasn't used to it.  
So he would end up sleeping in Richie’s bed, instead of his sleeping bag (that he never used it anyway) and with one or two blankets. Richie loved that Eddie's cold feet would end up entangled with his underneath the blanket, instinctively looking for warmth whenever Eddie was asleep. Richie knew Eddie would never admit to doing so it if he were awake, so he kept it a secret.

Richie stared for too long at the underwear drawer before grabbing a pair, sniffing it and then stuffing it into the bag. He didn’t mean to be creepy, he just wanted to make sure he was getting Eddie a clean pair. Even if he knew would never have dirty underwear inside the drawer, he just wanted to make sure (Richie did mix used and clean underwear in a drawer.)  
What Richie did sniff out of guilty pleasure was his t-shirt, which was on the pants drawer. He would let Eddie borrowed his Pink Floyd shirt, Eddie somehow always found a way to not give it back. No matter how many times Richie asked for it. He didn't know why the t-shirt had stains that he didn't make and that it was in the pants section.  
It smelled like cigarettes, mint gum, softener, orange cologne and Eddie's sweat. And Richie liked it, it smelled like them. He put the shirt back inside and closed the drawer carefully.

Richie poked his head out the window, looking down at the ground before dropping the bag.. He then got on top of Eddie’s desk and jumped down. He tried to land steady, but lost his balance and his whole body weight landed on his left leg, spraining his ankle. He stood up with the bag and limped out from the Kapsbrak’s yard .

He encountered Eddie at the end of the block with a tense look, tapping his foot against the ground with his inhaler in hand.  
"Hey, don't worry, buddy, I got all of the stuff you asked for. Your mom didn't even notice." Richie tried to reassured him. Eddie noticed how odd he was walking and tried to get a hold of the bag Richie was carrying , but Richie pulled away before he could , "Let me carry it, Eds.”

“Are you sure? You are walking a little funny.”

“I’m fine, Eds, it’s just a bit heavy, but nothing I can’t handle.”

☁︎  
In the end, they did not rent a movie, instead, they settle to play some vinyls Richie had laying around his room. Eddie chose a Beach Boys one. Richie initially danced to some songs just to annoy Eddie, but Eddie couldn’t stop smiling and eventually joined Richie for half a song. He didn’t know how to dance, but neither did Richie.

After eating some pizza while it was still frozen (Eddie microwaved his because frozen pizza didn’t taste like anything, plus he preferred it warm. ), Richie laidd his back on the queen-sized bed with his new comics, Signaling for Eddie to join him. They started reading together the Forever People issue, but Richie kept closing his eyes and dozing off from time to time, yet still, Eddie would patiently wait for him to change the page. After a while, Richie realized, that he could no longer hold the comic upright for Eddie to read, so he told him he could continue on without him, that he would just look at the illustrations for now and read it properly another day. He ended up resting his head on Eddie's shoulder.

He wasn't really fully asleep yet though, he could still hear Eddie muttering the words under his breath as he was reading . With his eyes closed, he could only imagine how Eddie looked reading that comic. At some point he felt Eddie touching his face and the absence of his glasses.

Eddie had taken Richie’s glasses off, so Richie was able to rest his head more comfortably in Eddie's shoulder and chest , taking this also as an opportunity to snuggle onto Eddie's side a little more. Eddie didn't mind, he never did.

Richie lost track of time while he was half-sleeping, and at some point Eddie was lightly shaking him.

"Hey, tsst, Richie, you are drooling on me. Close your mouth please, it’s nasty. Also, I really need to pee, so move please" Eddie muttered.

Richie opened his eyes slowly and looked up at Eddie, who was looking down at him. Their faces were too close for his sleepy self to handle at that moment. He then, trying to look as casual as possible, rubbed his eyes and rolled his body away from Eddie, pulling the covers to his face so Eddie wouldn’t see how flustered he was.  
"Psh, thanks." he heard Eddie say, the sheets rustling as he passed over him to get to the bathroom and close the door behind him.  
The warmth on Richie’s face wouldn't go away, nor the saliva on his cheek. He tried to get up from the bed, hand blindly reaching to his bedside table where he had hoped Eddie placed his glasses, but as it turns out, he caused them to slide off it. Richie huffed in defeat and plopped back on the bed, choosing to stare up at his blurry ceiling.

☁︎  
Richie’s bathroom had a mirror above the toilet.So while Eddie was peeing , he couldn’t help but meet with his own reflection. After he had taken Richie’s glasses, he had stared at his face for far longer than necessary. Eddie had also taken a sniff out of Richie’s hair while he was asleep, and couldn’t stop wondering why he did that. His image stared right back at him looking quite guilty by t_he fact that he enjoyed doing that, smelling his best friend’s hair_. He tried to convince himself that it was because Richie had finally taken a shower, and that it made his hair have a nice coconut aroma. When Eddie finished washing his hands, he couldn’t bring himself to open the door, feeling self-conscious and overthinking the current situation, his mind providing him with the idea that Richie might’ve already noticed that he did this odd things.

The embarrassment made him cringe and squint his eyes when the memory replayed in his mind, he had to take long breaths before opening the door. When he opened it, Richie was still on the bed but with his face facing down his pillow. Not looking at him.

"Can you please get me my eyeglasses? I can’t see shit” Richie muffled through the pillow.

Eddie stood frozen for a second, before rushing to where he had left Richie’s glasses. When Richie heard him get near, lifted himself up, and pointed at the ground, “I made them slide off the table as I was trying to find them.” Eddie easily found them and picked them up before handing them over,“Here.”

Richie took them, his eyes darting away, having not recovered yet from the events of earlier yet. “Fucking turn around or something, I wanna get on the bed.” grumbled Eddie to lighten the mood  
Richie giggled at that, scooting away to make some space for Eddie. Eddie then climbed on the bed, while Richie rubbed his face with one hand and with the other he put on his eyeglasses. He passed a hand through his hair before he spoke to Eddie: “Hew doe eye look?” he said, doing a very poor attempt at an australian accent.  
.  
Eddie was sitting on the bed looking him down, wrinkling his nose and looking at him disgusted,“Ugly, as always,”

Richie smiled with his eyes closed, Eddie felt more at ease that they had returned back to their usual banter. “You slept for like thirty minutes. I was starting to fall asleep too, but then you started being gross and drooled over me.”  
Richie huffed while rubbing his eyes underneath his big, bottle like glasses,  
“I was drooling so much because I had a wet dream about blowing your mom.”

“That’s so fucking wrong, man. Not funny, not even close.”

“You want like, uhh, a demo? I mean, you are obviously a virgin.”

Eddie started babbling “Honestly, fuck off, you probably lost your virginity to a crackhead on an alley. You probably have pubic lice and like ten infections by now.”

“And I can’t wait to pass them to you! Dude, we are gonna be like blood brothers!”

“Shut the fuck up, you are literally delusional. Literally.” Eddie fell right next to him on the bed.

“You make me delusional.”

“You wished.”

“Oh, believe me, you do.”

“Didn’t I just told you to shut your mouth? In case you didn’t hear, dude, Shut up.”

“Make me.”

Both of them stopped, suddenly finding the ceiling more interesting than seeing who had the best comeback and facing each other. Eddie glanced at Richie, who had an unreadable expression Richie started to close his eyes and puckering his lips, making kiss noises, leaning closer to Eddie. “Ugh, Eds, my love, kiss me already! Let’s see who kisses better, you or your mom!”

“Your breath stinks. Your whole existence does.” Eddie blurted out fast.

Richie stuck his tongue out and started moving it and making wet noises. Eddie smacked Richie’s face. He knew Richie was fucking with him, but it still made him get on his nerves. His smack came out a little strong that it made Richie’s glasses hit the shit out of his face. .

“Ouch, dude! What the fuck, Kapsbrak? ”Richie closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose.

Eddie got worried and sat on the bed cross legged.

“Fuck Richie I’m—” Eddie had his hands in front of his face, he kept moving them and touching his face “really, really—” Richie couldn’t help it, and wheezed, he covered his face with his hands, shaking his shoulders, chuckling. Eddie proceeded to lightly shove him.

Eddie moved back to lying down on the bed, resting his weight on his elbows and his body relaxing,“Oh, ok, I get it, you are a piece of donkey shit, a massive one.”  
Richie enjoyed Eddie’s comebacks to his nonsense. They were funny, fast and peachy. Eddie was really peachy. And easy to prank. He was made for punchlines.

“Ok ,ok, I’ll stop for now, but you really did hit me and it definitely hurt.”

“It better hurt, you are the worst.”

Both of them laughed. The sun had started to go down, it was golden hour and the sunlight peeked from the window blinds. Richie turned to looked at Eddie, he had his eyes closed as he was smiling. His lashes looked long and his freckles seem to glow. He looked glad to be there with him, sharing a moment, and that made him feel sappy as fuck, as Richie would say.

Richie smiled too and stood up, making Eddie open an eye to look at Richie. He was looking for something inside a box, he was going through his record collection. He got up and walked to the vinyl player to play the record . Eddie couldn't see clearly what band it was, but it had a dark vinyl cover. As the starting note played Eddie knew it was from the unmatchable, The Cure, which was Richie’s favorite band.  
Richie liked to play The Head on the Door on repeat., He had a massive collection of records to choose from, and still, he always went for that album. Richie liked to pretend he was Robert Smith and sing along and show off to the losers, Stan and Bill hated the album, they felt like they knew every single word to it by now. Beverly liked to sing along even if she didn’t know the lyrics like Richie did. Ben and Mike where neutral, both of them agreed that Richie knew how putting on a show, so they didn’t mind.

One time Ben stood up to dance with him and that made everyone stand up and dance along. Bill and Stan still refuse to admit they did too.Eddie pretended like he hated it in front of their friends, but when he was alone with Richie, he enjoyed the music. He didn’t know a lot about rock, punk or whatever the fuck The Cure was, but he t knew that Richie loved it and that Robert Smith was Richie’s idol, and that’s all that he felt he needed to know.

Richie started mouthing the song, and he still had his ankle sprained, so he danced carefully.

_Yesterday I got so old,_   
_ felt like I could die,_   
_ Yesterday I got so old,_   
_ It made me want to cry_

Richie pointed at Eddie.

_Go on, go on,_   
_ Just walk away_   
_ Go on, go on,_   
_ Your choice is made_

Richie touched his chest like if it hurt in a very comic way. Eddie chuckled.

_Go on, go on,_   
_ And disappear_   
_ Go on, go on,_   
_ Away from here_

Eddie started to sing along.

_And I know I was wrong,_   
_ When I said it was true,_   
_ That it couldn't be me,_

They pointed at themselves and then to each other,

_And be her in between,_   
_ Without you,_   
_ Without you_

Richie held his hands in front of him inviting Eddie. Eddie stood up and took his hands.

_Yesterday I got so scared,_   
_ I shivered like a child,_   
_ Yesterday away from you,_   
_ It froze me deep inside,_

They were both jumping as they held each other’s hands.

_Come back, come back,_   
_ Don't walk away,_   
_ Come back, come back,_   
_ Come back today,_   
_ Come back, come back,_   
_ Why can't you see_   
_ Come back, come back,_   
_ Don't walk away,_   
_ Come back, come back,_   
_ Come back today,_   
_ Come back, come back,_   
_ Why can't you see_

They both let go, but they still danced next to each other.

_Come back, come back,_   
_ Come back to me,_   
_ And I know I was wrong,_   
_ When I said it was true,_   
_ That it couldn't be me,_   
_ And be her in between,_   
_ Without you,_   
_ Without you_   
_ Without you_   
_ Without you_   
_ Without you_   
_ Without you_   
_ Without you_   
_ Without you_

  
The song came to an end and Kyoto Song started playing. Both of them were breathing heavily.their chests rising and falling as they tried to catch their breaths. The both of them then sat on the bed, laughing and just enjoying the music. Richie knew all the words to all of The Cure’s songs.  
Whatever awkwardness had been present after Richie’s nap and Eddie’s visit to the toilet, it had now disappeared.  
\--

It was around midnight, that they both started playing “Tozier’s Roulette”, a game that the both of them had created and now played whenever the two of them were together. Richie’s parents ate take-out most of the time and left the leftovers sometimes to rot inside the fridge. Both boys would taste the leftovers and guess what they were, some were still edible, and some weren’t. Whoever threw up first, lost.

They were laying in bed, teeth brushed (because Eddie insisted on it after their game)  
“Hey,” Richie said “don’t freak out, alright?, I sprained my ankle at your house.”

“I knew something was up with you! Why didn’t you say something sooner?!” The other replied quite angrily but equally concerned.

Richie placed his own hands in front of him, to try to get Eddie to calm down, “I was okay at first, alright? Barely felt a thing, but now it fucking hurts like hell. Can you please check on it?”

Eddie huffed, but moved to inspect his ankle, before gagging at the smell coming from Richie’s socks, “Your feet smell, go wash them or I will throw up again.”  
Richie groaned in protest before sighing in defeat, and moving to stand up as carefully as he could, Eddie aiding him in the process as they made their way to the bathroom. He sat on the edge of his bathtub, got rid of his socks and then started to run the water. He put his feet under the cold water to rinse them. Eddie insisted that he used soap, that water wasn’t enough.

“Okay, let me take a look at your ankle now. ” Eddie said when Richie finished drying his feet on a towel. He kneeled down and took a hold of his ankle. It looked swollen and red, Eddie winced.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i love the cure, ya kno? fun fact: Robert Smith was a CUTIE back in the days. LOOK HIM UP.
> 
> The song is Inbetween days :) here's a spotify link:  
https://open.spotify.com/track/4CRpOsjhvgxjF7rQufmyZ1
> 
> i have been listening to this song on repeat.  
thanks again Polly, you are the Evan Goldberg to my Seth Rogen<3

**Author's Note:**

> i need to step up my your mom jokes game....


End file.
